Coping with Cliques

School Library Journal

Gr 7-12-- Seeking acceptance among their peers, young people often join an ``in'' group--a clique. While not inherently a negative thing, such groups become undesirable when they pressure their members to engage in such activities as skipping school, smoking, drinking, or even doing drugs. Peck explores these and other problems that teens often face through short, easy-to-read chapters and numerous third-person vignettes. She provides suggestions on building self-esteem, dealing with peer pressure, making new friends, getting out of a clique, helping parents understand about their teens' need for independence, coping with comparisons with siblings, finding organizations to join, planning group activities, and more. A section devoted to hotlines and other sources of help and a list of further reading that includes many YA novels is appended. --Dana McDougald, Cedar Shoals High School, Athens, GA